BBC Sport
BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC. It became a fully dedicated division of the BBC in 2000. It incorporates programmes such as Match of the Day, Grandstand (discontinued in January 2007), Test Match Special, Ski Sunday, Rugby Special and coverage of Formula One motor racing, MotoGP and the Wimbledon Tennis Championships. To improve its coverage of sports news and politics, the BBC created the position of Sports Editor. Mihir Bose was the first post holder, who after leaving in August 2009 was replaced by David Bond in December 2009. Formula One The BBC covered Formula One for many decades until 1996, initially covering the odd race on the calendar, before introducing in 1976 a programme which followed the entire championship. Formula One was shown under the Grand Prix banner, races were commentated on by Murray Walker, with many co-commentators including James Hunt and Jonathan Palmer. Coverage was expanded in the 1990s, when all qualifying and races were shown live - many with Steve Rider fronting the coverage. The loss of the rights to ITV was seen as an example of the BBC Sport department's decline in the late 1990s, although as with cricket, the BBC continued to broadcast every race live on its radio services. 2009 marked the return of BBC television coverage of Formula One after an absence of 12 years. A five year deal was announced in March 2008, replacing ITV's existing coverage. Jake Humphrey anchors the coverage with David Coulthard and Eddie Jordan acting as pundits. Martin Brundle and David Coulthard provide the commentary (with Brundle also replicating his famous grid walks seen previously on ITV, while Ted Kravitz and Lee McKenzie are the pit lane reporters.) Brundle and Kravitz are the only two members of the ITV F1 team who made the move to the BBC F1 team. Legendary commentator Murray Walker, who has commentated on F1 for both the BBC and ITV for over 50 years, returned as part of the team, providing analysis and opinion on the BBC's Formula One website. The red button coverage offers alternate Radio 5 Live commentary from David Croft, Anthony Davidson and Natalie Pinkham and for the 2009 season a CBBC commentary from Michael "Abs" Absalom, Dan Clarkson and Perry McCarthy was available. The red button also offers a split-screen (showing the main coverage alongside an onboard camera view and a rolling leader board) and a rolling highlights package. The Formula 1 Driver Tracker, provided by FOM, was introduced at the 2010 British Grand Prix and is available both online and on the red button. BBC Three plays a role in the Formula One coverage with a one hour highlights programme. Friday and Saturday's free practice sessions are also shown on the red button. However, the BBC has sold half of it's F1 rights from the 2012-2018 season. On 29 July, 2011, Sky Sports bought rights to all practice, qualifying and race sessions to every single Formula 1 Grand Prix for the next six seasons. The BBC are to broadcast half of the races per season, including the "key" races, such as the British, Monaco and the last race of the season, however if there are an odd number of races then Sky will take exclusive coverage of the extra race. BBC Radio Five Live will still broadcast all the races and qualifying. Fans are not happy about this. Category:TV Channels Category:The Move Category:BBC